The day-star of liberty - Tom Paulin

In this book - itself a work of polemical energy and eloquence - Tom Paulin sets out to place Hazlitt in his rightful position as one of our great prose writers and an exemplary literary artist. Analysing his subject's radicalism and its foundations in Unitarian culture, Paulin argues that he was in effect a republican epic poet in prose - as distinct from prose poet - and a crucially important critic who has been given nothing like his due. Paulin does for Hazlitt what Christopher Hill did for Milton, offering a fully rounded literary portrait against a background of depth and detail never before adequately appreciated. The Day-Star of Liberty has already established itself as one of the truly revelatory and essential texts of late 20th-century criticism.